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Topic: Insights from Daniel Lanois (Read 2814 times)

Aside from a strange interview at times, there was some nice juicy bits (no pun intended). Pretty fascinating though, and when he broke out the steel guitar and synths toward the end, made me wish Lanois could create some more ambient or downtempo in the future.

Fascinating interview. Always loved listening to DL talk, he has a true gift for putting into words music , which is not an easy task. I met him once at an in-store performance at Borders in San Francisco and he was very humble guy and very gracious. I really liked the interviewer on this too, really good questions. What I want to know is how he picks who he will produce. He must get tons of requests.

Great post Judd......on many levels. One that strikes me is how "ambient" music has permeated pop music, and yet listening to him talk I wonder if he even knows what ambient music is, or where it is today. Where is it anyway? As usual lots to think about. Im thinking that we need or should...clinging with perseverance to our beloved ambient music....to let it go. Not sure what that may actually entail but Lanois somehow suggests to me that the spirit of ambient has endured and always will without the need to claim it as a genre per se. Did it suddenly get rather hot in here.

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"Life is one big road, with lots of signs, so when you ride to the Roots, do not complicate your mind, ... " Bob Marley

Yeah, excellent observation Julio. I get the feeling DL has never paid attention to "ambient" as a genre, it is more that those were just records he previously did that were interesting, but now he's moved on. This isn't surprising, because he seems much more about music and production than putting labels on everything or only being into one genre.

I do wax nostalgic quite a bit though these days about the ambient "heyday" of the 80's and into the early 90's. Those Eno albums (ambient series) were so unlike anything out there at the time and were very special. They certainly did inspire a lot of people--both musicians and listeners.

Yes drone on, those were special days when ambient as a type of music was born and it did and hopefully still does inspire both listeners and musicians alike.....we are still here.

I may have mentioned this before but back in the 80's in London before I came to America I had the good fortune to see an Ambient concert with Harold Budd, Daniel Lanois, Micheal Brooks & Roger Eno. Brian Eno was there but not as a performer. It was a small theater with maybe 100 seats.....it was perfect!

What would become Ambient music was an idea that Eno had while recovering from some injury and could not get out of bed to turn up the hi fi, so he was forced to listen at very low volume and the music mix with the environmental sounds. This event produced Discrete Music and then Music for Airports. I realize most know this story but its seems to me that the "idea" is almost more important then the music and listening to DL in the video reflects this for me.

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"Life is one big road, with lots of signs, so when you ride to the Roots, do not complicate your mind, ... " Bob Marley

I saw this video last week, it is interesting. Funny though is I just started reading his book Soul Mining in which he covers a lot of similar ground with more detail and of course a whole lot more too. Anyone heard of the guy who interviewed him before? I suspect he is some hiphop producer because of Daniel's one reference about the killer bass to him.

I may have mentioned this before but back in the 80's in London before I came to America I had the good fortune to see an Ambient concert with Harold Budd, Daniel Lanois, Micheal Brooks & Roger Eno. Brian Eno was there but not as a performer. It was a small theater with maybe 100 seats.....it was perfect!

Sounds like the Opal records tour, we had something similar in LA, but in the larger Japan/American Theater with Budd, Roger Eno, Laraaji, Hugo Largo and the highlight of the two day event being Carl Stone interviewing Brian Eno. Interesting event, but I never understood why Hugo Largo was so highly thought of at the time.

Anyone heard of the guy who interviewed him before? I suspect he is some hiphop producer because of Daniel's one reference about the killer bass to him.

Yes, he's Pharrell Williams and though I don't know his work well, he was in a band called N.E.R.D. and he did sing in a couple songs on the new Daft Punk album. I guess he does produce music too, but it's mostly pop and rap (he's in that crazy huge song by Robin Thicke right now). The only thing I like is his Daft Punk appearance as it fits well and his voice is similar to the singing on their other vocal-heavy album called Discovery.